Take It With You - In Promaster

Sometimes the littlest things fix themselves in our minds - and unless we get them right they can throw us all askew.

Take the business of filters. In the GOD ( That's good old days...) we all carried a pack of photographic filters. When all we could afford was black and white film, we carried unmounted slices of glass that we dropped into filter holders. If we were travelling light, we took just a medium yellow. If we wanted the lot we carried, yellow, red, yellow green, and UV. Plus a neutral density one if we were arty...

When we could finally afford a roll of Kodachrome we changed over the brightly coloured filters for a light blue, a light amber, and a polariser - we kept the UV on anyway. If we were doing commercial work for people who knew what they wanted, the simple blue and salmon became a half dozen assorted strengths to cope with the sunlight at different times of the day. We might even have a purple filter to counteract fluorescent light - but there were so many types of fluorescent tube that the thing was really a bet, not a science.

Digital came, and initially the filter pack dropped to UV and circular polariser - plus as many rectangular graduated neutral density filters and complicated filter holders as we could load onto the mule. If the RSPCA didn't catch you, that could be quite a few filters.

When good sense returned and we realised that we needed to carry only UV, Circ Pol, and one ND, we were still confronted with the problem of carrying filters for different lenses - we might have lenses that we constantly used that were 62ø, 67ø, 72ø, 77ø, or 82ø and trying to make sure that we had a filter for each one was a nightmare. Some of us tried to rationalise the thing by getting enormous filters and then putting step-down rings on them. But then we had to store the step-down rings somewhere...

Well, Promaster to the rescue this last fortnight. Finally we have a sensible system of filter wallets in the shop that can cope with multiple sizes. Look on the heading photo and you'll see that you can go from 62ø to 82ø and from 3 to 6 filters. The wallets have belt loops, and in some cases zippered pouches round the back to hold lens cleaners or money. They are all sensibly priced and will clean up your camera bag or your pocket perfectly.

Note also the new Promaster filters - I've shown a UV and a Cir Pol. They are scratch-resistant and very keenly priced - well made too. Apparently there is a special coating that resists grime and moisture, making them easy to keep clean.

Uncle Dick